Thoughts on confederate war statues
In these tumultuous and divisive times, it has become almost mandatory that before expressing an opinion contrary to that given by the nightly news or editorial pages that a writer establish his/her bona fides as a legitimate American. In order to offer an argument [let alone legitimize what you want to say or write] one has to deplore every form of white supremacist views and denounce anyone, who [in the opinion of the media powers] might possibly be contaminated by such a person.
I have continuously written and preached from my pulpit that there is NOTHING of the American spirit — nothing praiseworthy — nothing patriotic about white supremacists [or any other racial supremacists for that matter.] Such beliefs are vile, wretched, wicked, perverse and indefensible if one is a biblical Christian or any other sensible person of good will. It degrades other humans created in God’s image and is anti-God and anti-Scripture. It is rooted in the lie of evolution and fostered the ignorant and foolish superstition that blacks, other people of color, and Jews were many millennia behind whites in the evolutionary development of humans — making these non-whites, in fact, sub-human.
Nazism began in post “World War I” Germany. Adolf Hitler was convinced that Darwinian evolution was true, and that all of life could be explained by watching the Aryan race struggle for dominance. He rigorously insisted that Jews, Southern Europeans and Gypsies were sub-human “bacteria” destined for extinction. Of course, political liberals, educational elitists, and the “scientific” powers that be are not inclined to acknowledge this connection. It is much simpler to attack and eradicate monuments and statues of Confederate soldiers.
It is undeniable that there have been and still are individuals or even small groups of such who hold and espouse hateful and ungodly racial prejudice. But this does not mean that as some allege, that there is open, flagrant, and institutionalized mistreatment of blacks in America. Neither does this prove that most white Americans are latently and willfully prejudiced against blacks. These false and incendiary charges of continuous and current white oppression of minorities can only diminish the real, pervasive, and inexcusable historic mistreatment of black people. Of this past despicable conduct, our nation was guilty and it has shamed us. But that was then and this is another time.
I have been blessed with many native southern friends and acquaintances, both black and white, after living for nearly 7 years in South Carolina and Georgia. To them I was and am an incorrigible “Yankee.” But I do not know of a single one of them (which I realize proves nothing) that thinks that the numerous statues and monuments of Confederate soldiers found throughout the South pose a subtle but pervasive inclination to honor or return to any part of the past horrendous evils of slavery.
What about these southern statues and their Civil War memorials? Many have noted that “a land without monuments is a land without a history. Civil War monument building in both the North and the South peaked between 1885 and the early 1900s. In the South, these monuments seemed to lessen the bitterness of the memory of the Confederate defeat which was often seen as emasculating and shameful. The memorials were not so much tokens of a “lost cause” nor were they a visual reminder of the evils of slavery.
In the immediate post-war years, these southern monuments were seen as a part of the National dialogue and simultaneously signified a lost cause, but more so, was a tribute to bravery and honor, regrets, mourning or grief. I am sure that some former Confederates may have seen political defiance or more malignant impulses such as racial and gendered hierarchy in these statues and monuments. But this was certainly not true of all.
But what happened at Charlottesville, Virginia? Neo-Nazis had secured a legal permit for their protest against the planned removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee. But the issue went much beyond a simple statue. These satanically deceived provocateurs waved swastika flags and bellowed constantly that “white lives matter” and repeated the familiar Nazi slogan of “blood and soil.” Immediately mayhem ensued when radical militant leftish groups including BLM, Antifa and the Black Panthers “just happened to show up” at the Nazi protest. More disturbing was the revelation that these two factions were allowed to collide head on by orders of city and state officials. What else could have happened than what occurred?
Allow me to digress. The following day, I watched with a mixture of contempt and amusement the “millennial snowflakes” riotous jubilation at the toppled statue of Robert E. Lee. A constantly replayed video showed antics of a numbers of these “rough and tough” self-righteous specimens of liberal manliness. I had to chuckle as they variously kicked at, slapped, spat at, and urinated upon the toppled statue of the Confederate general. What a rousing display of courage, honor, and self-sacrifice this was! I tell you it was nothing but inspiring to have witnessed such a “selfless and spontaneous display of bravery against a toppled but dangerous cast iron enemy.”
But really now. What can they possibly know of such noble things as “honor” or “courage” or “sacrifice?”
What is my point in all this? In spite of all the chaos and screeching of activists and radicals, our Constitution and fair-mindedness ought to insist that each town lawfully and peaceably decide if they want to keep their statues and monuments.
William “Ed” Nicholson is pastor of the Grace Baptist Chapel at Little Summit in Dunbar Twp. He may be reached at willien@hughes.net or at the church page at www.thegracebaptistchapel.com.